(and the venue for our 2020 Conference!)
The 2019 Omega Writers Conference took place over the weekend, with 96 attendees from all over Australia and New Zealand. The conference included announcing the winners of the 2019 CALEB Awards.
Picture Book
Sponsored by Simon Malcolm Productions.
The winner was Lily’s Balloon, written by Katrina Roe and illustrated by Helene Magisson.
Young Adult Fiction
Sponsored by Iola Goulton at Christian Editing Services
The winner was Penny Jaye (aka Penny Reeve) for Out of the Cages.
Adult Fiction
Sponsored by Cecily Patterson at Fire Wheel Press.
The winner was Grace in the Shadows by Christine Dillon.
Nonfiction (Biography or Memoir)
Sponsored by Shona Weston at Apricot Editing.
The winner was Hudson Taylor and China: A Dramatic Biography by David Bennett.
Unpublished Adult Fiction
The finalists in the Unpublished Adult Fiction category were:
- Catherine Murray
- Claire Steel
- Carmen Thornton
The Unpublished winner is Carmen Thornton, for The Five Year Plan. Carmen receives a $400 voucher from Rowena Beresford at Book Whispers.
Catherine Murray and Claire Steel each receive a $150 voucher for an assessment from Rochelle Manners at Rhiza Press.
Encouragement Awards
Christian Editing Services also sponsored an Encouragement Award for three writers nominated by conference leaders. They were:
- Beth Simpson
- Mindy Graham
- Jodie McCarthy
Katrina Roe and Penny Jaye with their awards, along with Rachel Sweasy, who edited the Nonfiction winner.
The Awards presentation was streamed live on Facebook, and you can watch the replay here: 2019 CALEB Awards Facebook Live.
Thank you to all our judges for their hard work, and congratulations to all the winners!
Achievement Awards
We celebrated all those writers who have taken a step forward this year by:
- Published your first blog post this year.
- Wrote your first book review this year.
- Created a website this year.
- Started an email list this year.
- Entered a contest this year.
- Came to your first writer’s conference this year.
- Are a 2019 Stories of Life finalist.
- Had a story included in another anthology this year.
- Finished the first draft of a novel this year.
- Finished the first draft of a nonfiction book this year.
- Published your first book this year.
- Published a book this year.
After all, writing is a journey, and we need to celebrate the small steps as well as the big steps.
We also celebrate with and congratulate David Rawlings for being Australia’s first ever Christy Award finalist, for The Baggage Handler.
The 2020 Omega Writers Conference
The 2020 Omega Writers Conference will be held at the beautiful Peppers resport in Kingscliff, NSW, from 23 to 25 October 2020. If you’d like to find out more and receive regular conference updates, then join our Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2513162132286313/?ref=share
Remember, Omega Writers members receive a conference discount.
Wow, that is Awesome! Congratulations to all the winners! Thank you for sharing this post.
Thanks for visiting, Alicia.
Thank you for streaming the awards. Congratulations to all who were recongised. Can’t wait for next year. Xx
I hope you can make it next year!
So great! Congratulations to all the winners and finalists. And so awesome to celebrate all the ‘firsts’ for the year. Totally agree that we need to celebrate the little steps as well as the big steps! Will hopefully get to next years one! x
I’d love to see you again, Lays. It’s been too long 🙂
It has definitely been too long! Would love to see you and catch up as well. Hopefully next year I can make it happen
Thank you so much for FB streaming the awards ceremony. Lovely to see familiar faces. My favourite part – the ‘achievement awards’ – the smaller things that go towards making a writing career.
Congratulations, Christine!
I think the achievement awards were the highlight of the evening for a lot of people 🙂
Congratulations to all the winners and finalists! The Live Stream for the CALEB Awards Ceremony is saved as a video on my Facebook Profile and my Facebook Live stream was shared into our ACW Facebook Group by Cate McKeown. Thank you, Cate.
A big thank you to Iola for all the work she undertook behind the scenes, and for recruiting 30+ judges to assist her.
And, the Encouragement Awards and Stand Up were a great initiative that I hope will continue at future CALEB Awards nights.
Everyone who enters the CALEB Award is a winner. The unpublished entrants gain helpful feedback on how to improve their writing. The published authors who enter their books are being read by judges who may be new to their writing, and they may gain new readers.
Yes, everyone who enters is definitely a winner!
If anyone is interested in judging in the 2020 contest, please let me know via the Contact page and I’ll add you to the list.
Thank you to everyone involved in CALEB from judges, to organiser (Iola Goulton)!
CALEB is such a unique a special award, recognising excellence in faith inspired writing. I was honoured to be shortlisted for the YA category this year with wonderful, talented writers like Cecily Paterson and Rosanne Hawke. Such amazing company!
Thank you! Yes, the YA category was tough this year. I’m glad I was only the organiser, not a judge.
Thanks so much for streaming the awards and for all the hard work that went into it. Watching the stream really made me feel part of it. It was great to hear what others are writing and to put some names to faces. Looking forward to the 2020 conference.
I’m glad you enjoyed the livestream and were able to watch it. We weren’t sure if the wifi would be good enough, but it survived 🙂
I hope we all get to meet you next year!